Why do Australian parents continue to fork out extra for private schools?
If private schools offer little academic value over public schools, why do 35% of Australian parents continue to choose to pay the hefty fees rather than sending their child to the local state school?
Parents have a high regard for public schools
School choice is a dilemma for a minority of parents. My research with parents in Melbourne suggests that the preference for public schooling is strong even amongst those who end up sending their children to a private school.
In fact the most highly regarded form of education, as reported by parents, is the local public primary school. Parents making the decision on where to send their children to secondary school spoke glowingly of the quality of teaching and the cultural and social diversity in public primary schools.
For some, at the secondary level, it is simply a question of resources and facilities. The super-funding of private schooling by successive federal governments has resulted in visible disparities, and this drives demand.
Some of the parents I studied were contemplating private schools with twice the level of resources per student, and more than ten times the spending on capital works (including five times more capital funding from government) than the nearest public secondary school. This extra funding is reflected in sporting and music programs and state-of-the-art science facilities.
The cut-throat competitiveness, archaic trappings and social selectivity of private schools are held against them by many parents, who under a different funding regime would go public. In fact, school sector was not considered to be an important consideration in choosing a school in my study.
Related: Jane Caro: Why public funding of private schools hurts us all.
Top Comments
Every parents looks better quality of education for their children. Private schools brings high levels of parental satisfaction with 98.6 percent of respondents answering that they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their chosen school relative to their previous experience at a government school.
Without sounding snotty, I come from a fairly wealthy family. My Dad is a consultant for shipping companies who generally pay quite well. Anyway, both my parents had very humble beginnings and so they sent me to a public school to learn some street smarts. I went to a pretty crappy public school. It didn't hurt my cause as I have a bachelors and masters from a prestigious university and a decent job. I know quite a few private school kids from social circles who went on to do nothing important.